Abstract

In the context of the home, definitions of what a robot is and could be are open for interpretation. These robots are devices for utility, drama and entertainment. They exist in a similar way to an exotic pet such as a snake or a lizard, where we provide living prey and become voyeurs in a synthesized, contrived microcosm. The predatory nature of these autonomous entities raises questions about life and death, taking us out of the moral comfort zone regarding the mechanized taking of life. They compete with the spectacle of life seen in programmes such as Big Brother, wife swap or televised, edited and dramatised depictions of war. as consumers of these programmes, like those who keep vivariums, we have the potential to be repulsed, engaged or both, and as voyeurs might consider ourselves complicit.